Action Bronson on What He's Taught Mario Batali

Action Bronson’s new book Fuck, That’s Delicious is not just another cookbook with recipes. Sure, the book has detailed instructions on making Meyhem Lauren’s chicken patty potpie, golden beet poke, and hamburgers with black truffles and 24-month comté (you made that for dinner last night, right?), but there are also full two-page spreads explaining the anatomy of a proper bagel with cheese, and an extensive list of Bronson-approved pairings, which include grilled cheese and ketchup, and Wendy’s Spicy Chicken sandwich and a Frosty. (This last one is canon.) Through his career on VICELAND, Bronson has become one of the internet’s most entertaining food personalities—and his book delivers just as much loud enthusiasm for eating fucking delicious things as his show by the same name.

There is also plenty of free-flowing commentary and anecdotes by Bronson on his 100 favorite things, which include Taco Bell’s Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Jamaica, natural wines, and Kowloon Char Siu Bao.
Below is our interview with the self-proclaimed Mr. Baklava on his culinary journey growing up, his cookbook, and much more.

GQ: Talk to me about the importance of food in your house growing up.Action Bronson: It’s kind of ridiculous how everyone needs to fucking eat to grow. Everyone needs to eat to grow, and I just needed to eat slightly more than everybody else, you know what I’m saying? I like food. In my household, we ate lunch and dinner together, so it was a bonding situation as well. But it’s not like you sit at tables. You sat on the floor around the smaller tables.

My grandmother would make phenomenal food and everyone would just be fucking blown away by how good the food tasted. We’d be talking about that, and my grandmother would be sitting there, eating and critiquing her own food.

You dedicated your cookbook to your grandmother. What sorts of things did she teach you to make?She introduced me to Albanian food. It was typical Albanian food, made for family, made by hand, made with love, made with bread three times a day. It was all different kinds of meals, from things that took hours to make, to things that were just quick. Albanian food is peasant food, but it’s also very intricate as well. Preparation would take hours for certain things. The only ingredient would be the dough and cheese and it would take mad long to make this dish. The mastery is what makes it.

So you spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her.Absolutely. The kitchen wasn’t the only place where food went down, though. The kitchen wasn’t big enough to make certain things, so, we would take it out to the living room, and the living room would be where the food was being made. My grandmother would be prepping things there, all kinds of stuff. If there was a party or wedding, my grandmother would be making hundreds of things for everyone. She was the community cook.

[And she taught me] an entire style—the attention to detail, how things have to be done very meticulously, how they have to be done very specifically or else they won’t taste the same.

Today, kids can watch food shows like yours on VICELAND, they can go on Instagram, or go to roughly a million websites to learn about food. What did you do to absorb all that knowledge back when you grew up?It was by learning in the kitchen and a lot of magazines my mother had: Gourmet, Food and Wine, Edible Queens, Edible New York. There was always good reading material around, and I love looking at pictures of things, whether it’s graffiti, art, or food. I’m just a visual character. You could call me a voyeur. I like to watch.

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__Mario Batali wrote the foreword to the book. What’s that friendship like?__He’s one of my favorite human beings. I’ve been watching him since I was a kid. I hate how people on the Internet always call me their spirit animal, but I feel like Batali is my spirit animal. He’s a wild man, he loves food, loves art and culture, and is just an all-around great man.

What have you two taught each other about food?He’s taught me a lot about food. He’s introduced me to some of the best things I’ve ever eaten. He’s taken me to 3-star Michelin restaurants in Paris and Stockholm. The knowledge bestowed upon me from him is unbelievable.

You know, it’s hard to teach somebody like him about food. He’s up on things. But I think I’ve shown him that you can come from anywhere and have an appreciation for anything. I feel like I am the perfect example of that. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I’m a very humble kid from Flushing, Queens, but I love the finer things in life too, and that was before I had the money to obtain them. When I say finer things, I’m speaking about farm food that’s not garbage, those are the fine food that’s not garbage. It doesn’t have to be something monetary.

What was the decision process behind choosing 100 items for the cookbook?It kind of just happened. I was talking a lot with Rachel Wharton, who helped me write the book. I kept babbling and babbling and it could have been 500 things but we eventually narrowed it down to 100, because we have to do at least five books. [It’s gonna be] like the fucking Encyclopedia Britannica or something.

Is that the plan?That’s always the plan: to do more than just one thing.

In the book, you talk a little bit about working as a chef for the New York Mets. Do you have any behind-the-scenes stories you care to share?It was a fucking funny place to work, a lot of crazy people working there. I was doing really well and was about to get promoted, then one day some kid was just fucking with me, and he fucked with me one too many times, and I threw him over a desk just as the general manager walked in and were doing their rounds. So, Omar Minaya (former Mets GM) and all these dudes, they were doing their rounds, and saw I threw this kid over a table and I got fired on the spot.

Things worked out okay for you though.Things ended up working well.

One of the most enduring food trends of our time is people lining up for things—have you ever lined up for anything?Unfortunately, I have. I was in the heart of where they line up for everything: Japan. I was in Harajuku, and literally, I was getting cotton candy the size of a top hat, but I had to wait an hour in line for it. But it was fun because I made light of it. I was laughing. I had fun. It was a weird experience. Other than that, I don’t wait for shit because I can always find something better elsewhere, or I can make it better myself. I don’t like standing in line for anything. It’s ridiculous. I’m the type of guy who’ll stand there for a second and be like, nah, I’m getting out of here.

What’s the next cookbook going to look like?The next cookbook is gonna look neon green. Very, very neon green. If you know what I mean.

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